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Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian reporter held hostage in Iraq for
more than a month, arrived in Rome on Saturday, airport officials
said.

Sgrena arrived at Rome's Ciampino airport shortly before 11.00am
(2100 AEDT) aboard a special flight and was due to be taken to a
Rome military hospital for treatment.

Sgrena was freed on Friday but was wounded when US forces opened
fire on her car as it approached Baghdad airport, killing an
Italian secret service agent travelling with her.

US President George Bush has promised a full investigation into the
shooting. The US military said the car was speeding at a checkpoint
and that they fired warning shots before opening fire.

President Bush called Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi
personally to express his regrets, the White House said.

"The president assured prime minister Berlusconi that the incident
will be fully investigated," a White House statement said.

Sgrena has worked since 1988 for newspaper Il Manifesto,
which opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Berlusconi, a staunch ally of Bush, told a press conference in Rome
there were "disquieting questions" that needed to be answered about
the incident.

"Several shots hit the car. One man was mortally wounded by a
bullet. We are petrified and dumbfounded by this fatality."

Berlusconi said Sgrena had been hit in the left shoulder, and two
other Italians agents had been wounded when their vehicle was raked
by American gunfire.

Sgrena's newspaper, the Rome-based leftist daily Il Manifesto, said
the 56-year-old journalist underwent lung surgery and that her life
was not in danger.

Berlusconi said the dead agent had thrown his body in front of
Sgrena to protect her from the shots.

"It is a pity. This was a joyful moment which made all our
co-citizens happy, which has been transformed into profound pain by
the death of a person who behaved so bravely."

The US military said US soldiers who fired on a speeding vehicle
waved their hands and arms, flashed white lights and fired warning
shots in a failed attempt to get it to stop.

"When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine
block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two
others," the 3rd Infantry Division said in a statement.

ANSA said one of the two Italian agents wounded in the shooting was
in a serious but stable condition after an operation to remove a
bullet from one of his lungs. The other wounded agent had been
released from hospital and taken to the Italian embassy.

"Nicola Calipari is the person we must thank most for Giuliana's
release.

Unfortunately, he was killed by American bullets," said Polo.

The journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad last month by an Iraqi
group who called on Rome to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

News of the shooting dampened the mood at the Rome offices of the
newspaper, where overjoyed staff were celebrating their colleague's
release and preparing for her return.

Details of the release were not immediately clear.

Sgrena was abducted February 4 after visiting a Baghdad mosque
where refugees have been encamped since a devastating US-led
assault on the city of Fallujah in November.

Sgrena was shown pleading for her life in a video released by her
kidnappers two weeks after her kidnapping in Baghdad. Sobbing and
looking thinner, she delivered an impassioned message pleading for
her life, begging Rome to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Berlusconi's centre-right government rejected the plea, and on the
same day used its majority to ensure the Italian Senate voted to
extend the mission of Rome's 3,000 troops in Iraq.

A few days after the video was shown, an estimated half a million
people marched in Rome to demand her release.
AFP